A/N: Hi…blush I'm Snekochan! Long time no write…anything longer than a one shot. Personally, I'm not really sure where this story is going. It's an adaptation of a story idea I started a few years back… So, I thought I'd give it a shot with Danny Phantom characters, because they fit better than the characters I came up with. - Right then…
Blanket disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom. I never have, never will, and to be honest, as much as I like it, I wouldn't want to. It wouldn't be ok for little kiddies if I did! -
Chapter 1: Eyes
He could feel them. They were watching, laughing. He could feel it. It was that gaze, that look.
Wall…
It was that look that followed his filthy hide.
…to wall.
He could hear the rise and fall of their voices, their tap-tap-tapping rising over his scrambling heart and the hum.
Tap. Tap. Eyes. Wall. Tap. Whispers.
Eyes….they were ever-existent, voiced by the jeers, felt by the tapping.
Tap. Tap. Wall to wall. Freak.
The jeers were his breath, the tapping his heart beat. He couldn't hear his own now anyway. Did he even have one?
Eyes…
His neck prickled as they followed his progress, foot before foot. Breath before breath. Green stained red before green stained red, though he wasn't sure what those words meant anymore. Red, green, life, death, living, dead, human, monster. It meant nothing. It was all the same. He paused, his limbs shaking, sweat sliding between his shoulder blades in stinging trails.
Always the same. He raised his head.
And still they watched.
The eyes, tearing him. Nothing distracted them. All the same. Was it day or night? Hot burns, hot pain, hollow aching. He moved again, his breath heavy in his chest, his eyes greying, his body thinning, fading.
And still they watched.
He didn't cry.
He made no sound.
He didn't remember how.
"Goodness, Jeremy, this is marvellous!" The man smiled, taking the woman's hand.
"Only the best, m'dear." He said smoothly, leading her into the foyer.
"Oh yes." the woman glared at the porter who quickly dropped her bag, tipping his hat to the younger girl following the couple. The woman gave him a nod, setting her own bags on the floor, wincing as her heavy boot touched a bear pelt lining the floor. "We are NOT staying here." She announced grimly, trying not to cover her mouth as she spotted the animal skins lining the wall.
"Oh Sammykins, don't be silly!" Pamela Manson laughed, fluttering her long eyelashes. "Isn't this lovely?"
"Yeah, If you like walking over dead animals! What did they ever do to anyone?" Samantha Manson snarled, picking up her bag. "I'm sleeping in the car." Her stomach twisted as her eyes landed on yet another skinned creature. A rabbit this time.
"Uh- should I take your- uh- bags, Miss?" The porter asked, shuffling his feet and fiddling with his glasses.
"No-" Sam looked at her father as he shouted the word at the same time. "I can carry-"
"You will take your bags to your room." he barked out sharply. "Like the proper young lady. That. You. Are. You. WILL. Behave!" his eyes flashed and she took as step back. "Take her bags upstairs to her room." he hissed to the broad shouldered man by the door, stuffing her bag into his hand. "Make sure she goes." he shoved Sam towards the door, but she dug her heels in.
"No WAY! I'm NOT staying in this god-damned massacre-"
"SAMANTHA ELIZABETH MANSON!" the room around them went silent as everyone; clerks, porters, doormen, janitors, patrons, turned in surprise. Sam grinned. Perfect.
"Yeah, that's my name. But I'm still not staying here! What did those animals do to have their skin ripped up and nailed to a wall?!" She lifted her chin, violet eyes flashing. Pam blanched, hurriedly glancing around the room to see who she knew, or who she might know.
"Samantha dear-" she hissed, pleading. Sam didn't move her gaze from her father's reddening face.
"Having trouble there, Manson?"
"Can't control your daughter?" A large man chortled. Jeremy smiled apologetically at the manager who was standing by the door, grabbing Sam's arm and leading her outside, his face moving from red to purple. He didn't stop until they were by the limo.
"Well, I'm glad you saw things my way." Sam reached for the door, only for him to grab her hand and whirl her to face him, his face inches from her own.
"Listen to me, and listen well, Samantha. You are a young lady, and I will not tolerate such behaviour. Might you remember a particularly large donation you wished to see go to the conservation group? The one for the new non-fossil-fuel school project? Wouldn't it be terrible if that were…deducted?" she stiffened.
He wouldn't.
"If you continue to act in this manner, I will see you never donate to another cause again, and I will remove any such donations you have already made."
Ok, maybe he would.
Jeremy released her arm, and she rubbed it, watching as he turned back towards the hotel, tossing her a card. "That's the key to your room. I leave you to decide." She blinked after him until he stormed back into the glass fronted building and looped arms with his wife, disappearing from her line of sight. Biting her lip, she looked down at the card, wrinkling her nose at the picture of a bear on it.
Why did her father have to love this sort of thing?
Oh yeah. This was where all his rich friends came to golf, and where they spent the summer months, which was why she was here, trapped in this hell hold.
"Dammit!" she growled, stomping her foot. If she didn't stay inside, all her donations would be recalled. "I hate him, I hate him, I hate him!" she chanted furiously, clomping back and forth along the front patio. "Damn it! I guess I don't have a choice." she muttered, tearing her eyes away from another pelt. She rounded the corner and reached the end of the patio. The ground bled on from there, fading into darkness. She had to stay here. She understood that much…but seeing as she was here for a month, surely she could find…something that…wasn't up to standards. Smirking, she kept walking, shivering in her close fitting top and wishing she'd thought to wear a jacket. Shrugging the feeling aside, she turned onto a light lined path, folding her arms. Her eyes flitted across the open area, noting the lack of shrubbery. Quietly, she continued along the lit path, her eyes flitting from path to the buildings that rose ahead of her. These were the hotel suits, if she remembered correctly. It had to be, judging by the lights flashing across its walls. Clomp, clomp. She smiled down at her boots. Those babies were her best friends. She stopped, craning her neck to peer up at the huge building. How much had it cost to make? How many animals had lost their homes or been killed for it? Her stomach clenched, but still she put her hands on the door.
"What do you mean he's not moving?! Get him up!" A man in a dark cloak and a top hat stormed by, bellowing into a phone. Ice flew over her skin.
No!
Her hands covered her mouth.
What was he doing here? Bile rising to her throat, she lurched from the path, bolting towards the buildings. What was he doing here? Her hands found a door and she slammed it behind her, crouching in the darkness, her lungs knotting.
Damn him. She slid down the door, sitting with her back against, her heart the only sound in the darkness, a hum rising in her ears.
The back wall of the alley appeared ahead of her. Why, why, why had she tried to find out if he was mistreating the animals? Sam smiled grimly, clenching the camera to her chest, the pictures safe inside. She'd done her job.
"Now child, you don't want to take those pictures anywhere." the ringmaster's voice hissed as his partner's green glow rose at the open end of the alley.
Damn! She was trapped.
"Just hand over the camera, brat." the man and a glowing woman appeared from around the corner, the woman's tattoos flicking free from her flesh to whirl in the air above them. "Hand it over."
"No!" The woman swooped closer, the tattoo monsters circling, looming over her. Sam backed up, feeling the wall against her palms. The ghost woman lifted a narrow hand, and the monsters shot down, their wails lifting the hairs on her arms as Sam threw herself flat.
"Dammit." she growled, standing. That was years ago. A couple anyway. This was no time to let that happen again! Clenching her fists, she stalked into the room, only to hit a wall. Damn her lacking night-vision! Rubbing her forehead, she put her hand on the wall, jumping as her elbow struck off a handle, the humming grating her nerves.
"Yeah, yeah, I'll get him up." A different voice this time. Sam swore as the door she'd just come through opened. Damn damn damn damn! She twisted the knob, scooting into the still-dark room-
Only to meet a pair of green eyes.
A/N: It's been awhile since I wrote anything, and I'm not really sure how this will go, but I'll try my best! -